


Black Desert

by stars_and_shadows



Category: Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: (third chapter), Attempted Rape/Non-Con, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Independent New Vegas, Light Angst, Past Tense, Post-Nuclear War, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 13:46:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8448292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stars_and_shadows/pseuds/stars_and_shadows
Summary: Benny didn't think Six could be afraid of anything after all the shit she had been through. Mostly on account of him, but that was besides the point, he had been wrong.





	1. Desert Rose

Benny could not believe his luck, and by luck he definitely meant misfortune. Everything was going smooth and then he's waking up on his knees. He wasn't sure exactly how, but the Legion bastards figured out he wasn't one of them pretty quick. They all looked the same to him. Save for baldy and his lap dog, they had a pretty distinct look. 

Uncomfortably, he shifted forward on his knee caps trying to spy the two distinctive figures in question, but to no avail. Benny's legs and hands were bound with thick pieces of rope, the best he could do to get comfortable was to sit back on his heels. Shame his suit was getting all dirtied up too.

There really wasn't much he could do but wait, and the waiting was really killing his back. It had already been a couple of days, by his count, since his capture but it felt like the strain of two years weighing him down. This definitely wasn't how he wanted to wait for death, fuck, if he had his way he wouldn't have to for a very long time. He really fucked up this time, didn't he? 

The Mojave heat seeped through the pores of the tents. Soldier chatter drifted through the cracks. Sweat dripped from his forehead. A vulture screeched in the distance. He zoned out. 

Which, he really couldn't be blamed for. There isn't much to do in a legion camp while waiting to be executed or nailed to a cross. 

That dame, and she definitely turned out to be one under the dirt and blood, had him enraptured for sure. Of course, his mind wandered all over, not just the choice bits. He was still a gent- well, more of a businessman actually. Which was close enough. Still, the thought of her irked him in more ways than one.

It wasn't really guilt, he didn't think. It might've be about ditching- wait, wait. He could use a nicer word but it'd be a pretty lie, although, he was a man made of mostly pretty lies. No matter. It might have been leaving her all alone up in his suite. She very well could have killed him, but she didn't. It was eating away at his conscious, the why of it. Broad must really have brain damage, if he were to guess. 

Things would have been better if she'd never shown up. Even if she had just survived, gone about some other life instead of tracking him down. Things would have gone right.

 

Benny expected to be nailed to a cross by this time yesterday. What he did not expect was to ever see the positively platinum Courier ever again. Of course she was here. Just- of course she followed him, or maybe she wasn't even following him, they just seemed to end up together no matter what they did. 

He could admit, though, he was glad to see her. 

Six made her way through the center of he main tent without throwing a passing glance his way. Couldn't say he didn't deserve the cold shoulder and all, but yeesh, it still stung. It was probably the legion guard crampin' his style. (Which, by Six's count, he never had to begin with.) 

Caesar was explainin' something to her, something she probably already knew, he didn't listen. Courier was smart, a lot smarter than he'd have guessed at first glance or second glance, considering she took two bullets to the head. No matter. Those pretty wicked eyes of hers should have tipped him off right away, but he was a sucker for them all the same. 

At the sound of footsteps, her footsteps, Benny sat up a little straighter. 

She rounded the corner, ducked into the shade with a determined look on her face. Six looked straight at him, and really saw him, he could tell by the way the beginning of an expression twitched high on her brow. 

"Hey-o Pussycat!" Benny watched her carefully, then added, "That last turn we took is an 18 karat memory, baby, I gotta say," 

She rolled her eyes, but he could see the brightening of her cheeks even from here. His pride swelled a little at that. 

Six moved closer to him, fiddling with her hair as she did, "You were. . . fine- amazing," The tone of her voice grew quiet, almost a sigh that either showed her embarrassment or defeat. Either one was positively delectable. 

Benny licked his lips, smirked, "Don't I know it, too bad conjugal visits aren't. . . eh, practical here," His comment was met with another silent eye roll. "But down to business. How'd your meet and greet with baldie go?"

"Weren't you listening?" She immediately shot back, brushing the black hair out of her eyes as she did so.

"Not in the slightest,"

"Right, of course," Six paused, "He gave me the Platinum Chip,"

He rightly chose to ignore the smirk on Six's face and got right into the meat of it. "Baldie wants you to destroy what House's been stockpilin' in that bunker, right?" 

"Right, and? I'm guessin' I shouldn't do that, right?" Her voice goes low, almost a whisper but not quite. 

"Nah baby, you go down there and do whatever Mr. House would want you to do,"

"Mr. House is out of the picture," Six scratched the back of her neck, smiling sheepishly down at him. It was a good look for her. A little shy and vulnerable but not so much that nobody could see that she could kick their ass in a heartbeat. 

His brain caught up with, well, everything else, a few moments later. The implications of her words shocking him deeply, she really did get things done. 

"Woof, how's it feel to end an era?" 

"I- just don't know- feel anything? He's not actually dead- either- just. . . trapped,"

"Details, details. He won't be- ahem- interfering?" He'd physically wave her off if his hands weren't bound. 

"Probably not, I didn't scrub the code of his life-chamber, so I can't be sure if he didn't have an emergency dispatch and override feed set up if a new host-,"

"Not a techie, remember, ain't got a clue what any of that means," Benny said flatly, thinking that she might just be painfully beautiful when she rambled nonsense. 

The look she gave him was thoughtful, it stung the deepest darkest parts of his nonexistant heart, then Six chuckled, "I'm ninety percent sure we won't have a problem,"

He didn't dare ask what she meant by we, it was too sentimental, dangerous territory. Benny didn't even think she realized she'd said it. Of course she hadn't. He was just overthinking it, her. 

"Looks like you've got Vegas in the palm of your hand, Pussycat. You get to decide what happens to it," Benny knew he sounded wistful, disappointed even. He'd had his chance and blew it, he told himself, if nothing else he'd have his master plan live on. She was the only other person for the job, and he considered the possibility that she might be the only other person he'd ever trust with it. "So, what now?"

"I don't know," She said. 

"I'm beginnin' to think you say that a lot," 

She crossed her arms over her chest, "You're right, I do. The only thing that changes is whether I'm lying or not," And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out of the tent. A part of him, a sad, desperate part of him, hoped she would come back.


	2. Black Thorns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benny wasn't afraid of dying, or the horrors of the wastes. He could admit that he was afraid of heights and being crucified. Six couldn't admit she was afraid of anything, but after that night, he had a couple of guesses. 

Six visited him that night. Of course she did. She loved to show up unannounced, and she always came back to him, somehow. Whether he wanted her to or not was entirely situation dependent.

The holding tent's entrance flaps were closed earlier that evening, she didn't even bother with them. She ducked, crawled under the far side to his right. Benny's head snapped in the direction of the foreign sounds, the flash of bright moonlight. Lo' and behold there she is, clawing at the red Mojave dirt and dragging herself into the warm darkness of his prison. 

Her figure moved like static through the tent, then, the brief shine of moonlight solidifying her figure in his mind's eye. He followed her figure until she stopped beside his, still, kneeling form. She sat down heavily beside him, close enough that she could reach out and touch him. The

"What are you still doing here?" He asked.

Benny stared in the general direction of her, their eyes met. He felt it, rather than saw in this case, the spark. 

To him, she was always so loud, so vibrant. He was sure Six could dominate a room with more than just her reputation. He'd known her, really known her, for less than a day and even he could tell. Reading people just happened to be his thing, but that was besides the point. To be blunt, it was unnerving for that to be nonexistent. 

"Inculta wouldn't let me leave," She answered. The sentence struck him as odd, it took 

That was the first time he had heard her refer to Caesar's lapdog as anything but Vulpes. Using his first name so casually, especially by a woman and a degenerate, was derogatory of his position as a Legion man, as a frumin-whatsit, spy, whatever. It was purposefully disrespectful and spiteful on her part. He had found it rather amusing. 

"Why not?" Is all he can think to ask her. There really weren't very many possibilities for her if they, as a collective, wanted to keep her there. 

"Too late to go across the water, won't- wouldn't let me go down into the bunker either," She paused, her labored breathing filling up the enclosed place. Six didn't finish the thought, the awkward half-thought hung in the silence. 

He didn't like it. It wasn't like her. It wasn't what he expected. It unnerved him, yet, Benny didn't make an attempt to say anything either, so maybe it was his fault. 

"I hate it here," Six said, she shifted her position. Benny guessed she was sitting now, instead of kneeling beside him, one hand supporting her from the back and legs stretched in front of her. It was easy to track her movements, they stopped, jerked in a direction to fast. She was a well oiled machine that had fallen into disrepair since he last saw her, Benny thought. 

"How do you think I feel, toots?" He rolled his eyes, not like it mattered, anyways.

She leaned into him. He realized why she practically rattled with each breath. Her body was shaking like the temperature has dropped several hundred degrees, which it definitely had not. She was afraid of something.

Benny was not afraid of dying, no, but when Six was afraid, so was he. It was good cause to be too, this woman had proven to be a force to be reckoned with. 

He expected her to snap at him for his snark, which couldn't be helped, but instead she told him, "Well, I guess that makes two of us," A wobbling chuckle followed, he suddenly felt the same chill. 

"What's botherin' ya?" He ventured carefully, though, he could draw a few conclusions on his own. Six's chin dug into his shoulder briefly before she removed it to lean her head gently on him. 

"Right now? You. So, hush," She commanded, then blew air at his ear gently, playfully before settling back on his side like she owned him. At this point, maybe she did. Benny knew enough to shut up. 

The quiet night stretched on. Benny closed his eyes, tried to imagine being back in an actual bed. A warm, definitely naked, body pressed against his side. Her calm breathing, half-lidded eyes, a whisper of breath along his collar bone. Soft breaths, warm bed, full stomach. . .

When he woke up again she was gone. The only indication that she had ever been there at all being the strange patterns drawn in the sand beside him.

**Author's Note:**

> You guys seem to like it when Benny speaks his mind, so have more. 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> and If you can't tell, the Legion camp makes me extremely uncomfortable. 
> 
>  
> 
> I've been writing this for nearly two months. There still might be a third chapter, but I stopped writing for a while and forgot what the third part was supposed to be about. It's a solid maybe though. 


End file.
